User blog:PlasmoidThunder/This Is It - Proposed Layout Change Ahoy!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTES. THE LAYOUT CHANGE IS SOON TO BE IMPLEMENTED. PLEASE GO HERE. Currently in process: Plasmo-Bot has finished with the character articles! We can now begin with the layout change! I believe I have created all necessary templates and categories, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. ---- After a very lengthy wait, the time has come. Well, in reality, the time has come for you to decide on whether or not this new layout should be implemented. Do be aware that this new layout proposition wasn't made to aggravate everyone -- oh no, quick the opposite, actually. Getting to the point, this layout proposition will make editing that much easier, will make things easier to find and navigate, as well as making articles look less cluttered. Just to clarify, this only affects character articles at this point in time, seeing as they're our biggest shame, so to speak. Before we start, do be aware that this blog is HUGE. Please read it all. It's all vitally important, I swear! Article structure So anyway, let's start at the top with the proposed structure of the character articles: Now I'm sure some of you will go "BUT THAT'S COPYING MUGEN LAB!", to which I reply, "yes and no". I actually had this idea way before Mugen Lab was a thing, and it's not like it takes a genius to come up with the idea of splitting articles up like that. It's quite evident that it worked well on Mugen Lab, so... If anyone doesn't understand it, it means that there will be a main article that links to branch articles; these branch articles will be about each specific version as to prevent a single page from getting overloaded with .gifs and whatnot. Edits are now getting their own branch articles, too. I'll explain later. Oh, and unlike Mugen Lab, characters like Fosh Beary are not classed as their own character, so in this instance, Fosh Beary would still be branched from Josh Geary. Anyway, if one takes a look at this article, you'll see how the main articles will look. Before I break each aspect down, I'd like to make it clear that the M.U.G.E.N Arcade is not the new MUGEN Database and I'm not abandoning this wiki. I'd also like to make it clear that you can't edit there, or at least, I don't want you to; it's my personal sandbox wiki that allows me to do stupid crazy stuff that may or may not come to fruition on this wiki, without having to actually edit here. I'll say it again, please don't edit there; I'll just delete your edits, so don't bother wasting your time. With that out of the way, let's begin breaking this beast apart. Main articles 'Up top (infobox included)' Some of you might have noticed that up until the "Elecbyte's first version" section, it's practically identical to how it is normally, and you'd be correct in saying this (ignore the Story section, as I'm sure many have gathered it's unique to the Kung Fu Man article -- why, we already have it here). Actually, the only difference is the infobox, which no longer contains any download links (they're handled in the individual branch articles to remove overly long infoboxes that are bogged-down with download links), instead having two new sections called Oldest version and Newest version. The new infobox source looks like this: Example infobox: 200px |Caption = Unofficial artwork of Kung Fu Man |Creator = Elecbyte |Old = Elecbyte's first version (1999) |New = Elecbyte's fourth version (2009) |Origin = Original}} Now to explain the two new sections: The Oldest version section will contain a link to the version's branch article with the text "X's version (yearreleased)". Omit the "(yearreleased)" if it is unknown when it was released. The section text defaults to "Unknown". The Newest version section will contain a link to the version's branch article with the text "C's version (yearreleased)". Omit the "(yearreleased)" if it is unknown when it was released. The section text defaults to "Unknown". Yes, I just repeated myself; deal with it. Actually, there is one last change in regards to the infobox (well two, if you want to be specific). Fan art is now allowed for infobox images, but only if no official artwork exists. Be aware that quality is a thing, so if the only fan art available is this crude MS Paint drawing, just leave the image section of the infobox as "Image = "; no pornographic art, either. If there is no artwork available, leave the image section as "Image = ", seeing as portraits and idle animations go in the branch articles. The other thing was the Origin section, which has had a tricky time dealing with characters that are based on real people; when in this situation, put the origin as "N/A". Just so you know, the infobox is still called up by . ONWARDS! 'Version headers' The big new thing is these little sections that link to their respective version's branch article. Like we do now, try to put them in chronological order, so the oldest version goes at the top, and the newest version goes at the bottom; it's not mandatory, but if you can, please do this. The header text is "Creatorname's version", though if there are multiple versions made by the same creator, put the headers as "Creatorname's first version", "Creatorname's second version", and so on -- yes, multiple versions released by the same creator have different branch articles. If we use Jetgoshi's two Rayquaza characters as an example, we'd name the branch articles "Jetgoshi's first version" and "Jetgoshi's second version", respectively, just as you would the headers -- no, "X's version 2" is not acceptable. If a creator's two versions are unrelated to each other, you still use the same naming system based on which version was released first. For example, if I made two Rotom characters, but made one a joke edit with gory hypers, then its header and respective branch article would still be known as "GarchompMatt's second version", as it is my second version of a Rotom character, even though it isn't an improved version of my 1st version. These are case-sensitive, by the way, so "first" and "version" are lower-case. For the content of the section, use the idle animation of that version and write up a little summary of the character; unlike the gameplay sections, you can actually be a little bit informal, but try to keep it short, and don't use "me", "myself" or "I". Here's an exert from SpaceMouse's Pulseman and GarchompMatt's Rotom, respectively: Pulseman on a really good day. Sprites and sounds come from Pulseman, as well as the majority of its moveset. Very powerful and plagued with infinites, it'll catch you off guard, especially with its A.I. A strange character with no defined play style, making use of only three buttons. Has custom sprites and a moveset inspired by moves Rotom learns in the games, but when combining its small size, its agility and the effectiveness of its projectiles, this is one mischievous little sprite that'll get on your nerves. Source-accuracy is also something you can mention. The final part is just :Read more..., which can be inserted with , so no need to put too much thought into it :P Here, have one I just conjured up :) Dylanius9000's version Baring some resemblance to FelixMario2011's Oshawott, this little character has a playstyle inspired by The King of Fighters 2002, with special effects from The King of Fighters XI. Most of its moveset is heavily inspired by moves Chespin can learn in the Pokémon games. :Read more... The second last thing on our list is the See also section, which (as you might expect) contains a list of articles relating to the character with a reason as to why they're related next to each entry. As shown here, the articles are linked to and put in bullet form; the description is written after a hyphen (-). Be aware that the list is not limited to characters, so stages can also be listed. The final part is the categories. While these remain the same for the most part, certain version-specific categories like Voiceless Characters, Spriteswaps, Cheap Characters, Joke Characters, etc. are no longer listed here, and are instead listed on the version's branch article that they apply to. This was probably one of our biggest criticisms outside article quality, seeing as people didn't know which version was a spriteswap, cheap, 1.0-only or whatever. ONWARDS TO THE BRANCH ARTICLES! Branch articles What's best about this? Pretty much nothing changes! I'm dead serious. Let's once again use Kung Fu Man's article as an example. The gameplay section is identical outside a few minor changes that I'll put in a handy list format: *As with the Movelist and Palette Gallery sections, the Victory quotes section should always appear on an article, even if there's no victory quotes; should this be the case, use the template. Also, the Nomoves, Nopals, Noquotes and Noedits (I'll get to this one later) add their own respective categories to an article. *Quotes are now handled with the Quote template. Use for general victory quotes and for character-specific victory quotes. Much simpler than before! Here, have an example! *The palette caption "(Original colours)" is not used any more. It was pretty stupid in the first place. *Version branch articles each get their own Videos section, as opposed to there being one Videos section that's overflowing with videos of every version. Three videos per branch article. Now onto the new things with the branch articles! 'New stuff' At the top of the article, you'll notice the small description that was originally written on the main article, except it's in italics. Make sure the text is exact, so things that were originally italic are now shown as unformatted text. The infobox is called up by and uses practically the same markup as the original infobox character did, though with a few minor changes. Example infobox: ) |Image = File:KFM2002port.png |Caption = Character portrait |Creator = Elecbyte |Downloadlink = MediaFire |Rescord = Resolution |Resolution = Low}} The first name shown is the displayname (the name you see in-game), whereas the second one is the internal name used by internal identifiers like enemy,name. Both are found in the character's .def file, so they're not hard to spot. If the character doesn't have an internal name, don't add it. In case you haven't already seen the template in action, Tt allows you to create hover text when you hover your mouse over a piece of text, . The image will always either be the character's portrait or (should there be no portrait) the character's idle animation, so the caption shouldn't need to be anything other than "Character portrait" or "Idle animation". Creator and download link are the same as they've always been. I will allow patches to be linked to in the download section like A.I. patches, but not edits and palette packs. Resolution is the other new thing, as is the mysterious "Rescord" parameter. Rescord is a parameter that allows you to change the name of the resolution section, though the only names you'd ever need to change it to are "Resolution" and "Localcoord" -- in fact, the parameter defaults to "Resolution", so you can omit it if you're not dealing with a localcoord character. Like stages, resolution has three values: Low, High and HD, though should you be dealing with a localcoord character, the value should be the localcoord value ("640x480", for example), as seen in this article. At the bottom of the example article, you'll notice a new section called "Edits". If the character has not been edited, simply put under it; if the character has been edited, however, put . That's it. Now for our last section, categories. As I mentioned above, version-specific categories are now placed here, but because of this fantastic ease of categorisation, we can now use categories such as Four-button Characters, Six-button Characters, Hi-res Characters, Characters with a localcoord of 1280x720, and so on; yes, for the localcoord category, use the localcoord of the character. Low-res Characters, hi-res Characters, HD Characters and Characters with a localcoord of #x# should not be used on the same article. The resolution categories are for characters that are scaled via the .cns, whereas the localcoord categories are for characters that are scaled via localcoord. Version-specific categories are allowed even if no articles apply to them for the sake of compatibility; how many characters do you know that use all seven buttons (a, b, c, d, x, y, z and s) for attacking? Don't delete say the HD Characters category because there's nothing in it. Edits We've had a lot of trouble with these little buggers thanks to a certain clown, but I've come up with an effective way of sorting them out. The edits branch article is a branch of the branch of the main article... Did you get all that? :P Once again using Kung Fu Man as an example, you'll see that the article starts with a disclaimer. Fortunately, the disclaimer is all contained neatly within , which handles all the nonsense. You'll also notice if you scroll down to N64Mario's first edit that each section has its own infobox -- this is once again an attempt to prevent oversized infoboxes. The infobox is exactly the same as infobox version, only instead of , it's , which changes "Creator" to "Editor" both internally and visually. |Creator = is now |Editor = That's seriously all there is to it. As it says in the disclaimer, edit branch articles don't duplicate information, so all you need to is note what the edits remove, change and/or add. If a part of the character is unchanged like the stats, for example, you still use the header, but put under it. The movelist is the big part when it comes to edit articles, as rather than just list Specials and Hypers, you list removed Specials, removed Hypers, modified Specials, modified Hypers, added Specials and added Hypers, though don't add the section should nothing fit the criteria, meaning if no Specials were removed, don't add the Removed Specials header. Underneath the movekey template (which stays the same, don't worry), place like so: The gap is important. Do not forget the gap! As the ModMove disclaimer states, the original values of the moves are placed underneath the new ones in parentheses (brackets like these, in case you didn't know). If only the move name has been changed, don't list the move, and only show the animation if the animation has changed. Remember to treat the move like the original, so if a move was originally classed as three separate moves, but was merged into one in terms of name (so if you originally had Weak Kung Fu Pancake Toss, Strong Kung Fu Pancake Toss and Fast Kung Fu Pancake Toss, but the edit renamed them all to Kung Fu Pancake Toss, you'd still list three separate moves), but keep in mind that this only counts if more than just the name was changed ;) Also, even if there were no Special or Hyper Attacks originally (and the edit hasn't added any), use as opposed to please. The Palette Gallery is as it normally is, but only list the palettes the edits added and/or changed. Even if there were no palettes originally (and the edit hasn't added any), use as opposed to please. The Victory quotes section is also as it normally is, but only list the victory quotes the edits added and/or changed. Even if there were no victory quotes originally (and the edit hasn't added any), use as opposed to please. No videos on the edits branch articles, please. DO NOT categorise edit branch articles. Also, if the supposed edit is fundamentally different from the original (practically only uses the same sprites, if that), treat it as a separate version and not an edit. If you want an example, see Ax's Link and Napoleon's Link; one could say Napoleon's Link is an edit, but the only real similarity between the two are the sprites. Almost there. Are you getting the giggles? :D Alternative palettes Virtually the same as it's always been, only the disclaimer is slightly different and is inserted via , as well as a "click and download" function. Basically, if a palette is not made by the original creator and was released by someone else, you simply click on the image of the palette you want and you'll be linked to the download for it (or in the case of a palette pack, the entire set). Simple and fun, yay. No need to categorise these branch articles because there's no categories for them :P If you need an example, take a look at Arcadia's alternative palettes. Small titbits *Moves should be written in italics. Ryu's Hadouken, Kung Fu Man's Fast Kung Fu Palm, etc. *Life, Power, Attack, Defence, Special and Hyper should be capitalised as shown. When referring to a Hyper or Special Attack, Attack is also capitalised. These words should only be capitalised when referring to the actual stats (Life, Power, Attack and Defence) and the type of attack; if an attack is called Super mega ultra power hyper mode, power and hyper should not be capitalised. *Header names should only have the first word capitalised, unless the header refers to a word that should be capitalised. Palette Gallery is still capitalised because it's important; it's the Palette Gallery. The end Yup, that's it. Now comes your part; that's right, it's poll time. I'm sure some people might say "Why don't you just enforce this layout upon everyone? Tough luck if people complain.", to which I reply "We're community-driven and always have been. I will only ever do things if the community accepts it, regardless of whether or not I'm the supposed head admin.". Granted, I'm all for the new layout, and not just because I came up with it; it's more practical, more organised and less cluttered. Other than hard work to get it fully implemented, it's a full positive over the original layout. So anyways, poll: The poll will end in a couple of weeks. If you want a specific date, 24th October. The poll has ended. If you do vote yes, I really hope you help us with the renovating. We had a lot of people last time who voted yes to the CommandList template, but didn't bother to help implement it. In case you didn't click on any of those links, please do take a look at the M.U.G.E.N Arcade and its articles to get a better idea as to what this will look like. You are free to browse and look at article source code, but please don't edit anything. __NOEDITSECTION__ Category:Blog posts